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Reference Type Unknown
Title City of Moreland Thematic History
Chapter/Web article title Theme Two: Peopling Moreland; Theme Ten: Sustaining Moreland's Community and Cultural Life
Author(s)Michele Summerton
Town Brunswick East
State VIC
Country Australia
Publication Date 00-05-2010
Citation Date 12-12-2011
Site URL http://www.moreland.vic.gov.au/mccwr/publications/policies-strategies-plans/city%20of%20moreland%20thematic%20history%20(final%2025%20june%202010).pdf
Page Number 20-27, 104
Comments This eBook is a detailed history of the city of Moreland regarding all of its elements in a thematic history guide. The overall article is to assess aspects and document all the post-contact places of identifiable cultural and heritage importance. In regards to theatres it focuses on many of the entertainment opportunities in Lygon St, Melbourne, Victoria.



It reflects on all the cinema's in the Moreland region, with dates going back to the first theatre that opened in the area, an open amphitheatre called Pictureland which opened in 1908.



Purpose-built theatres sprung up due to the 'talkies' in the 1920's and the Lygon Theatre was very popular as a result, so much so that it won out over the competing Star Theatre to run for thirty-eight years compared to the Star's early to mid 1920's run.



It discusses the effects of television and cinemas in the 1950's. As television was introduced in 1956, it had a remarkably negative effect on all Melbourne's cinemas with particular reference to the Brunswick and Coburg areas.



An interesting solution to compete with the success of television by some of the theatres was to specialise in screening foreign films also known as 'continental films' to attract more diverse cinema goers, specifically Melbourne's ever increasing Italian and Greek population. Unfortunately the Lygon Hoyts did not compromise and succumbed to the dominance and popularity of television. (Rohan Mirchandaney)



‘The City of Moreland Thematic History’ is a document produced by the City of Moreland in order to preserve the nature of places of heritage importance and cultural significance. It provides researchers with a great amount of information on all cinemas in the Moreland region from the 1900’s.



In particular, Theme Two Peopling Moreland, gives researchers an overview of the historical significance and statistics of migrants from Italy and Greece in the 1950’s and 1960’s.



This websites shows why there was such a demand for Italian and Greek Cinema during this period of time. For researchers, this document provides the necessary information in order to provide a correlation between migrants arriving in Australia from Italy/Greece and theatres opening up in the Moreland region.



In addition to this, Theme Ten Sustaining Moreland’s Community and Cultural Life begins to explain the importance of sustaining and preserving places of interest such as the local theatres in the vicinity.



This theme discusses the effects that television had on the entertainment community around 1956, and how this lead to a decline in people going to the theatres. Included in this, was a solution whereby theatres were specialising in foreign films in order to attract a different audience than what television was focusing on; it is evident that during this phase, the Cosmopolitan Theatre started operating – and was very successful for a short period of time. (Corene Innes)

tags: Cosmopolitan Theatre 
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Cinemas Mentioned ( click to view )
 
 

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